Solaris 10 11/06: Cloning a Non-Global Zone on the
Same System

Cloning is used to provision a new zone
on a system by copying the data from a source zonepath to
a target zonepath.

Starting with Solaris 10 5/09, when the source zonepath and
the target zonepath both reside on ZFS and are in the same
pool, the zoneadmclone command automatically
uses ZFS to clone the zone. However, you can specify that the ZFS zonepath be copied and not ZFS cloned.

How to Clone a Zone

You must configure the new zone before you can install it. The parameter
passed to the zoneadmcreate subcommand
is the name of the zone to clone. This source zone must be halted.

You must be the global administrator in the global zone to perform this
procedure.

Halt the source zone to be cloned, which is my-zone in
this procedure.

global# zoneadm -z my-zone halt

Start configuring the new zone by exporting the configuration
of the source zone my-zone to a file, for example, master.

global# zonecfg -z my-zone export -f /export/zones/master

Note –

You can also create the new zone configuration using the procedure How to Configure the Zone instead of modifying
an existing configuration. If you use this method, skip ahead to Step 6 after
you create the zone.

Edit the file master. Set different properties
and resources for the components that cannot be identical for different zones.
For example, you must set a new zonepath. For a shared-IP
zone, the IP addresses in any net resources must be changed. For an exclusive-IP
zone, the physical property of any net resources must be changed.

Create the new zone, zone1, by using the commands
in the file master.

global# zonecfg -z zone1 -f /export/zones/master

Install the new zone, zone1, by cloning my-zone.

global# zoneadm -z zone1 clone my-zone

The system displays:

Cloning zonepath /export/home/my-zone...

Starting with Solaris 10 5/09, if the source zonepath is
on a ZFS pool, for example, zeepool, the system displays:

Cloning snapshot zeepool/zones/my-zone@SUNWzone1
Instead of copying, a ZFS clone has been created for this zone.